University of Nebraska Lincoln - Cornhusker Yearbook (Lincoln, NE)

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. Omalia i ;vlme KEARNEY MIDWAY CITY );733™ FRISCO 1733 BOSTON ' ' bushels ot potatoes and one hundred .md twenty-seven milhon pounds of sugar are produced yearly. Closely related to the cultivation of the soil is the livestock industry. Every good farm has its herd of cattle. Some are kept for dairy purposes, some are raised for meat, some are petted animals which our proud breeder exhibits at county fairs as pedigreed stock. Swine are being raised to such an extent that Nebraska ranks second in the industry with two million head of hogs in 192. . Sheep are becoming more numerous and last year ' s report stated that there were about three hundred thousand scattered over the farms. It is in the western part of the state, however, that livestock raising becomes an industry-. The dry plains are especially adapted to supporting great numbers of cattle and a thou- sand head are often found on one ranch. Recent reports state that the annual shipment of beef cattle from the ranches to the packing houses and livestock markets averages about two million three hundred and seventy-five thousand head. This brings a need for transportation. There are seven rail- ways operating in Nebraska with six thousand seven hundred forty-two miles of track to carry this burden of traffic. Omaha, the leading city of Nebraska, is the blue- ribbon dairy produce market of the world. It ranks second as a livestock market and third as a meat curing and packing center with an annual expenditure of five million dollars in the packing houses alone. Nebraska has not become distinguished in other indus- tries. There are no mines, and the potash industry which flourished during the war has been shut down because of high cost of production. There are about four thousand factories in the state, the largest of which are the packing houses. Besides these there are flour mills, creameries, sugar refineries, candy factories, and bakeries. Clay beds also furnish material for the brickyards and for the tile factory in Lincoln. Then, there are factories turning out a variety of commodities. For instance, shoe strings and spark plugs are manufactured at Omaha, index tags are make at Exeter, and Kearney is the home of the dandelion rake. The cities are small, and numerous towns are scattered through the cultivated fields. The highways are being improved by state and county appropriations so that the automobile is the com- mon torm of .small scale transportation. The laborers of Nebraska arc well treated. They are not consumptive city dwellers, or pale men who go forth from gray huts with dinner buckets to the depths of dark mines. There is no menacing scx)ty mantle hovering above the heads of the people. Nebraskans live where the Tlic Higliesf Ponit in AJebras a, Scottsbluff Phec 1(1 Midu ' dy Betiyeen the CoasH; Highu ' fly ' May t T ear Kearney rrm i - rTT- ) J I I l l l rrrrrr l l ll l l mm ti rTtTi-rT r-i ir mi i r ■ ifl l

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II. The Present QEBRASKA, m January, 1919, was a changed Nebraska, one that had knuwn bereavement and sacriticc. For two years the state had been workint; tirelessly for the nation, had given men and money, had sent grain and meat. And a Nebraskan by residence and schooling, John J. Pershmg, was the commander-in-chiet of the American Expeditionary Forces. Nebraska was glaJ to give, so men and grain were sent from clean agricultural fields to a land where the sky was smoke- clouded and the fields were bloody with the horrors of war. During these two years, Nebraska thought of nothing but war, and lived for nothing but war. Then, at the end of it, the fighting men returned, and Do your bit to help win the war became a discarded slogan. But m a country whose duty it is to aid her broken neighbors, Nebraska still had a share of the work to do. Starving nations had to be fed and Nebraska ' s agricultural resources could produce a large part of the necessar ' suppl Slowly, the state has recuperated and today industry is mi longer at a standstill. Farm production is increasing; unrest has almost disappeared. Other states boast of greater wealth, they have silver dollars instead ot copper pennies, they have valuable mines or factories, but Nebraska has agricultural land and grazing plains. Nebraska is an overalled, blue-shirted state — a working state — but it has the ruddy brownness of health. One hundred and twenty-five thousand farms, covering an area of forty-two million acres, are included in the fifty-five million acres of the state. Corn and wheat are the principal grains raised in the region. Corn is grown on about one-half of the cultivated area with a total production of one hundred and eighty-four million bushels last year. In 192?, Nebraska, ranking third as a wheat pro- ducing state, brought sixty million bushels to the markets of the world. Besides these grains, alfalfa is raised extensively and nearly every farm has a small plot of rye, oats, barley, and buckwheat. In the western part of the state where the rainfall is light there are two thousand four hundred miles of irrigation canals. Here potatoes and sugar beets are raised. At present, about twelve million Tlie I ' laltt Riit-r from Blujfi South of fremoiit Page 9

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TT air is grinie-trce, where the unelouded sun can shine, where there is little of the despair of poverty and little of the despotism of the rich. While It IS true that th e state affords no small p.irt of the world ' s food supply, it makes a con- tribution to the professional and education.il world as well as to industry ' and agriculture. Today, Nebraska has noted representatives engaged in law, medicine, education, the arts — in all fields of professional and educational enterprise. In 18 4 The Jiehrask a ?iews was first published in Nebraska City.- During the seventy years that h.ive passed since this first newspaper appeared many important papers have com-e into being. At present, nearly every town with a population of a thousand or more has its own publication, and some of these smaller papers are noted for their maintenance of the highest journalistic stand- ards. In Omaha and Lincoln, there are several large daily papers and some of the finest editorial writers in the countrv. Before the world war the Nebraska State Medical Asso- ciation had a thousand mem- bers, but since, the membership has ■expanded to thirteen hun- dred. About nineteen hundred Great Western Suj; ' ' Beet Factory physicians are licensed to practice in the state. As a result of the activity of the American Medical Association, medical schools and hospitals have set higher standards for achievement. In Nebraska the hospitals are classified according to their equipment and the kind of service for which they are equipped, and fifteen have been rated Class A. Constant elfort is being made to enlarge this class. The state maintains four institutions for medical and surgical care of the ptxir. At Lincoln, Norfolk, and Hastings there are hospitals for the insane. The total capacity of the three is about four thousand. The Orthopedic hospital at Lincoln accommodates a hundred crippled children. Since the time of the first Indian schools, Nebraska has made steady educational progress until, at present, but 1.4 per cent of the population is illiterate. Sixty-two per cent of the children of school age attend school daily, and an average of forty-three dollars is expended annually on each child. There are five hundred eighty elementary and secondary schools in the state. Scene on William F. Cody T ' Bufalo Bill ; Ranch Hear Horth Platte Page 11